Daily Archives: March 17, 2008

Two weeks into the promotion of our new emergency alert system, AlertVU and we already have well over 10,000 subscribers, more than the 9,200 or so who had signed for the previous system.

As an incentive, one that appears to be working, we’re giving away four, count ’em, four iPhones to students, faculty and staff who’ve subscribed. We announced the first two lucky winners today – med student Jim Bekeny and Amanda Dixon, administrative assistant at the School for Science and Math. The win was especially sweet for Jim, who confessed he’d never won anything before in his life.

The winners are pictured here with Robert Wheaton, director of Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety, which is the ‘owner’ of AlertVU (thanks Bob!), and Mr. AlertVU himself, Johnny Vanderpool. In addition to celebrating this exciting give away, looks like everyone is celebrating St. Paddy’s Day, too.

If you haven’t signed up yet and want a chance to win your own iPhone before the contest ends March 23, by all means, sign up now! (If for some reason you don’t find out about AlertVU until after March 23, don’t worry, sign up will always be available. Unlike the free iPhones).

What the heck is AlertVU, you ask? From the Web site: “AlertVU rapidly sends messages to the delivery points a subscriber chooses—cell phone (voice or text), land line, e-mail account or pager—in the event of an emergency that poses an imminent threat or danger to the Vanderbilt community. Examples of such a threat include a tornado forecasted to strike Vanderbilt, or an active shooter on campus.”